The problem with MMOs is that I never have time to play them. Like long-term relationships, it’s a commitment. Players have to invest several hours each day in front of a computer to chat with friends, gain experience points and… Continue Reading →

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The problem with MMOs is that I never have time to play them. Like long-term relationships, it's a commitment. Players have to invest several hours each day in front of a computer to chat with friends, gain experience points and go adventuring. It's almost like leading a second life and that can be hard to keep up when you're already struggling with the first one.
But there is a way to distill the best parts of the MMO -- the social features, the community, addictive gameplay -- and it seems as though Machine Zone has figured it out. The early iOS developer has been working on an MMO for iPhone and iPad for the past 19 months, and today, it's going live in the U.S. You can download it here.
Game of War: Fire Age is a huge game that's a bit of Civilization mixed with real-time strategy, Warcraft 3 and everything in between. It's an MMO that lets players create a nation and build that empire in a persistent world that's home to thousands of other friends and foes who control their own countries.
The world of Game of War: Fire Age is huge. This is a fraction of it.THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE: I spoke with Gabe Leydon, CEO and co-founder of Machine Zone, last week and he showed a quick preview of the ambitious title. It may not look like much, but Game of War: Fire Age is incredibly deep as players build their nations. They'll mine resources and convert them into buildings in their country. Those buildings in turn provide units to protect the borders or offer places to heal or upgrade.
Players will quickly learn though that going it alone is an unwise strategy. They'll quickly have to forge Alliances with other nations. This is essentially a guild, that offers benefits. Banding together opens up an Alliance store where players can pick up items for free. Members can also offer aid that will cut down the construction time on buildings.
Widening the scope, these Alliance are part of an even bigger social group called Kingdoms. When players are first thrown into Game of War: Fire Age, they're in a protected Kingdom that older, more powerful groups can't attack. Eventually, as newcomers get their feet under them, that protection is lifted and they'll do battle with the outside world and older nations and the results can be vicious.
Anger enough folks and they can gang up on your nation and destroy it.YOU NEED AN ALLIANCE: That's because the whole MMO is PVP across and exists in one server, where multiple countries around the world compete. Some Alliances may be bullies and attack weaker nations. Others while try to be defend them and keep order. Whatever the case, players can't go at it alone even if they spend real money on the game buying power-ups and building a massive army, it will do them no good.
The reason is that no matter how big and powerful players get, they can never match the organization of an Alliance. These groups, which sometimes exist across nations and timezones, can overwhelm a country with the sheer number of forces. And even if players manage to fend them off, they do have to log off and sleep eventually and that's when the slaughtering comes. So it's absolutely vital to have friends who can send troops to defend you if you're away or offer support when you're rebuilding.
There are other elements in the gameplay. Along with the nation building that can be done, players will eventually get hero units that play a huge role in battles. What's interesting though is that these heroes can be targets for rivals and a player's hero can get kidnapped when she reaches level and executed at level 15.
Those micromanagement elements are important but the real joy out of any MMO is social interaction and Machine Zone built an intricate and robust social network to foster that. One of the most fascinating aspect of this is the cross-language support. In Game of War: Fire Age, players from France and Mexico can communicate to each other through the company's software that automatically translates chats and messages on the fly. When it comes to slang and game-specific terms, they outsource that to the community, offering in-game funds for those who take the time to define what phrases mean.
This is what your nation looks like if you weren't in a fight.GAME WITHOUT BORDERS: Communication is going to be an important tool. Perhaps more so than building large armies or a thriving economy. Game of War: Fire Age is political and different Alliances and Kingdoms are always scheming about how to get ahead. Players and Alliances will have to care about their reputation and broker deals so that they can pool resources and forces to fend off rivals. For example, Leydon showed an Alliance from Hong Kong who angered the community by kidnapping heroes and attack other countries. Soon enough, Kingdoms banded together to overwhelm and slaughter the group.
But in the end, the ultimate goal is to be the King. Alliances who have the King on their side get random buffs and debuffs enforced on nations at the head honcho's whim. It sounds as though it'll take conniving and adroit negotiations to keep the crown on your head.
Of course, this sounds very involved so how does Machine Zone allow you to play? Well, Game of War: Fire Age is ideally for the iPhone, and the game takes advantage of the always-on Internet connection on the device. Through the title, players can talk to friends, Alliance members or the whole kingdom. If they get attacked, they'll get an Push alert and players can go into the title to set up defense or call for help.
It sounds as though players are getting the best of both worlds. They're enjoying that social element of MMOs, but at the same time, the iPhone lets them take their game on the road and play it when it's convenient. Don't expect long, involved marathon sessions. Leydon said that players spend about two hours a day on the title and that interaction is done in bite-sized gameplay sessions.
From what I've seen, Game of War: Fire Age looks promising, but it'll be up to gamers to see if this visionary MMO catches on.
Want to know what Gieson Cacho is playing? Follow him on Twitter.
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